http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
ONLY ONE THING could compete with the Florida recount and that's another drama for television: the
rearrest of actor Robert Downey Jr.

The talented Mr. Downey was/is the romantic interest of Ally McBeal in the popular Fox television
tale. He was sprung from prison with lots of fanfare. He was "clean'' at last. Then he was busted
again. It's hard not to feel for a guy whose awful father gave him his first "joint'' when he was 6.

He saved the "Ally McBeal'' show from silliness with the sheer weight of his masculine magnetism.
Now he'll be at the mercy of prisoners, again -- real-life toughs, not characters in a movie -- and
they're likely to make a mess of him again. Last time he was in prison he was cut up in a knife fight.

Reading and watching the Downey news, I found myself getting almost as agitated over his arrest as
over the arrested election. Television does that. By coming into our living rooms, it's a great
emotional equalizer. It makes entertainment seem as important -- sometimes more important -- as
our democracy. It personalizes politics and all other kinds of performances, making moral
equivalents of subjects both light and heavyweight.

His fans want Robert Downey, Jr. to continue to be a character on "Ally McBeal'' no matter that
he broke the law. We hate the anonymous caller who ratted him out and the cops were meanies to
arrest him just because he had five grams of cocaine hidden in the bottom of a Kleenex box. He's a
brilliant actor (cute, too) and he deserves a break today. Ask any woman.

The other long-running television drama came back to mind when NBC refused to break in with
George W's speech when he won certification of his votes in Florida. Political bias, we're told, was
not behind the NBC decision. Would NBC have cut in with Al Gore's victory decision? The
explanation, which has the ring of terrible truth, was that the decision was based on marketing and
entertainment values. The network didn't want to break into the movie "Titanic'' and disturb its plot.

A senior NBC news source told the Drudge Report that the order came from the network
president: "'Titanic' cost a pretty penny. The feeling was that carrying Bush would distract from the
impact of the movie.'' He did not say that "Titanic'' might distract from the impact of disclosing the
identity of the likely next president. Television has priorities, after all.

Television can be a wonderful tool in a democracy, making news accessible to large numbers of
people. But it runs the danger of trivializing democracy, too.

George W. was not acting a part in a fictional drama. This was not an episode from "West Wing.''

"NBC blew it,'' acknowledged a senior executive of the network. But we're all in danger of
"blowing it'' if we continue to allow our national life to be reduced to entertainment. Television is
hazardous for our political health because it has the extraordinary power to blur the ability to make
important moral distinctions. Television gives equal weight to unequal facts.

Reporters and correspondents fell all over David Boies when he arrived as Al Gore's lead lawyer
with the fanfare of a Hollywood star and he acted his part well. He was the real equivalent of
Robert Downey Jr. But like the actor, he made one of the biggest "mistakes'' in his career. He
persuaded the Florida Supreme Court that dimpled ballots had been counted in an Illinois election,
and this should make them kosher in Florida. But the affidavit he submitted to substantiate that
precedent was a fraud and a hoax. Illinois had actually done the opposite. Illinois had nixed dimples.

But once the Chicago Tribune exposed the fraud, did the reporters ask Mr. Boies to explain
himself? No, despite the major error, he got a pass. He was a famous star.

Plato kept the poets and creative writers out of his ideal republic because their work was to create
lies -- imaginative lies to be sure -- but lies nevertheless. With television we have entered territory
never dreamed of by Plato. Not only can we no longer tell the difference between truth and lies, but
our lies are lies told to entertain
us.

11/30/00: Winner vs. whiner 11/27/00: Measuring against history 11/23/00: Memories of Thanksgiving past 11/17/00: In defense of the Electoral College 11/16/00: More than one way to win an election 11/13/00: Sexual politics squared 11/09/00: A Middle East legacy 11/06/00: Filling in the dots at campaign's end11/02/00: His own man in full 10/30/00: The Oval Office, through a glass brightly 10/23/00: There'll always be an England. Maybe. 10/19/00: The celebrity candidate 10/16/00: 'Ladies night' at the second debate 10/12/00: Gore vs. Bush: Volvo vs. Maserati 10/10/00: We weep for Rami for he is dead 10/05/00: Looking at Lieberman from inside the 'ghetto' 10/02/00: Campaigns, candidates, and kissy-face 09/28/00: Laughing and crying over Joe Lieberman 09/21/00: Targeting teenagers for money
09/21/00: Sexual politics in New York 09/18/00: Surviving the stereotypes and debates 09/14/00: Gloria Steinem runs cheerfully into captivity 09/12/00: Sex in the eye of the partisan 09/07/00: 'Sex and death' on the college campus 09/05/00: Joe Lieberman as a 'Menorah Man' 08/31/00: Rising suns of the conventions 08/17/00: Changing icons: From Loretta Young to Hillary Clinton 08/14/00: The Creator returns to the public square 08/10/00: Bursting with pride, but caution too 08/07/00: Brains, beauty and beastly politics 08/03/00: A candidate with a superego 07/31/00: The sizzling Lynne Cheney 07/27/00: The party of the aging Playboys 07/24/00 Hillary drives the Jewish wagon into a ditch 07/20/00 Conservatives gone fishin' 07/17/00: Snoop Doggy Dogg was a founding father, wasn't he? 07/13/00: When a teenager doesn't need a prime minister 07/10/00: Abortion as cruel and unusual punishment 07/06/00: Surviving 'survivor' TV 07/03/00: Independence Day with Norman Rockwell 06/29/00: Here comes 'something old' 06/26/00: Waiting too long for the baby 06/22/00: Good teachers, curious students and oxymorons 06/19/00: Wanted: Some ants for Gore's pants 06/15/00: Like father, like daughter 06/12/00: Culture wars and conservative warriors 06/08/00: Return of the housewife 06/05/00: Hillary and Al -- playing against type 05/31/00: The sexual revolution confronts the SUV 05/25/00: Waiting for the movie 05/22/00: Pistol packin' mamas 05/18/00: Journalists and the 'new time' religion 05/15/00: There's nothing like a (military) dame 05/11/00: 'The Human Stain' on campus 05/09/00: We've come a long way, Betty Friedan 05/04/00: From George Washington to Mansa Masu 05/01/00: Gore's ruthless doublespeak 04/28/00: Doing it Castro's way 04/24/00: Women's studies beget narrow minds 04/17/00: The slippery slope of anti-Semitism 04/13/00: A villain larger than life 04/10/00: When mourning becomes an economic tragedy 04/03/00: The last permissible bigotry03/30/00: Seeking the political Oscar 03/23/00: The gaying of America 03/20/00: Pointy-eared quadrupeds on campus 03/16/00: The shocking art of the establishment 03/13/00: Sawdust on the campaign trail 03/10/00: Campaign rhetoric of manhood 03/06/00: The Amphetamine of the People 03/02/00: Elegy for Amadou 02/29/00: With only a million, what's a poor girl to do?02/24/00: The changing politics of change 02/16/00: Tip from Hillary: 'Let 'em eat eggs' 02/10/00: No seances with Eleanor 02/07/00: Campaigning like our founding fathers 02/03/00: When neo-Nazis have short memories 01/31/00: George W. -- 'Ladies man' and 'man's man'01/27/00: Dead white males and live white politicians 01/25/00: Smarting over presidential smarts 01/21/00: A post-modern song for `The Sopranos' 01/19/00: When personality is a long-distance plus 01/13/00: French lessons in amour --- and marriage 01/10/00: Reaching for the Big Golden Apple 01/07/00: Liddy Dole as the face of feminism 01/04/00: Hillary: From victim to victor12/30/99: 'Dream catchers' for the millennium 12/27/99: In search of a candidate with strength and eloquence 12/21/99: The president as First Lady12/16/99: Columbine with blurred hindsight 12/09/99: Homeless deserve discriminating attention12/07/99: Casual censors and deadly know-nothings 12/02/99: Why mom didn't make general: A reality tale 11/30/99: Potholes on the road to the Promised Land 11/25/99: A feast for the spirit and the stomach 11/23/99: Fathers need to say 'I (can) do' 11/18/99: Adventures of a conservative pundit 11/15/99: Traveling with Jefferson on the information highway11/11/99: Wanted: 'Foliage of forbiddinness' for the oval office 11/09/99: Eggs, art and rotten commerce 11/05/99: Al Gore, 'Alpha Male'. Bow wow. 11/01/99: Gay love10/28/99: Lose one Dole, lose two 10/26/99: Rebels with a violent cause 10/21/99: Reforming parents, reforming schools 10/19/99: The male mystique -- he shops10/13/99:The campaign of the Teletubbies10/08/99: Money is in the eye of the art dealer 10/01/99: Lincoln's 'Almost Chosen People' 09/29/99: Introducing Bill and Hillary Bickerson 09/27/99: Must we wait for the next massacre?09/24/99: Miss America meets Miss'd America09/21/99: Princeton's 'professor death'09/16/99: The Cisneros lesson09/13/99: No clemency for personal politics09/08/99: M-M-M is for manhood 08/30/99: Blocking the schoolhouse door 08/27/99: No kick from cocaine08/23/99: Movies don't kill people 08/19/99: A rude awakening 08/16/99: Dubyah and that 'language' thing 08/09/99: Chauvinist sows -- oink oink